I don't know if your pet would do what I'm after, or if you know of anything which might work?, or might fancy another challenge?
as I've had little response & I can't believe no-one's done anything for deaf/hearing impaired people

I believe dragon naturally speaking can do both text to speech as well as speech to text, but I'm looking for a linux version or similar,
to put speech on screen, like subtitling on TV

Unfortunately, as HairyWill describes in the thread you gave, voice recognition is technically very challenging; there are so many variables, and lots of possible decoding techniques. Similar issues to optical character recognition, but worse, like trying to decode handwriting and more. Basically, recognition, of all sorts, is a major research topic, involving statistical analysis, neural networks, parallel computing, you name it...

A commercial voice recognition package, such as you described, may be the best way forward for your friend.

version 1.0.0pre8
Major overhaul to include new setup routines for edbrowse,
which call up a specially modified version of Karl Dahlke's
new edbrowse run control setup script.
Makes it relatively easy to setup your e mail accounts for use with edbrowse.
Edbrowse itself is upgraded to the latest 3.3.4 version from cvs.

When starting edbrowse for the first time,
you will be given an opportunity to configure it.
When you do that, you should accept all the default options for everything
to work with foksyf out of the box. Indeed it you put in other directories,
edbrowse will not be able to find its files!
You will, of course need to enter your own mail accounts information.

This release involved a signicant number of changes,
so some bugs may have been introduced. Let me know if you find any.

[I've actually moved edbrowse's configuration files around quite a bit
to coincide with the new default's used in Karl's script. Hopefully,
I've not broken anything major in the process...]

In foksy's e mail section you'll find an edbrowse mail getting started guide, which hopefully shows how easy it is to send mail with edbrowse. In the config system you'll find an option to re create edbrowse's run control config file anytime you like.

Owing to circumstances, including my moving to a new distribution,
this is mcewanw's last post concerning fokSyf Eye R on the murga linux forum.

I have been finding that I have been using up more time than I have available,
so, in order to rationalise my work on fokSyf,
I have currenly moved all future announcements concerning fokSyf developments
to its homesite:
http://foksyfeyer.wiak.org/

Please thus keep an eye on that page for the forthcoming announcement of
fokSyf Eye R version 1.0.0 final.

Since I am not planning to check murga forum very regularly, if at all,
you can leave any feedback you wish concerning foksy
on the general wiak.org feedback blog at:
http://wiakapps.wordpress.com/

A link for the above page is also provided at the main fokSyf website.

I don't myself post much to that page in general,
mainly because I haven't had any feedback there,
however, I will endeavour to answer any questions that you post on that feedback blog.

I do endeavour to take account of your comments, where possible,
and tend to prioritise any development work on the basis of comments and feedback,
so I encourage you to use that site if you still want to keep me busy!

Well, mcewanw has decided to move on permanently afterall,
in some search or other (a blonde or redhead maybe)
and I for one wish him all the best,
and thank him for all his efforts.
Anyway, that said, foksyfeyer's development and maintenance continues.
Yes, a version is being planned now for debian-based systems too,
but that is another story and problem in itself.
The puppy version will however remain a key version however.
Puppy Linux is a small, tidy distribution, which lends itself well,
I feel, to this sort of system/application.
A quick change of heart though, now that mcewanw has gone:
it is probably not such a good idea to only announce new versions of foksy on its homesite,
http://foksyfeyer.wiak.org
Certainly, new versions will be announced there,
but as far as discussions and comments are concerned it is probably better
to keep this thread for that purpose,
since new puppy users might otherwise realise that fokSyf Eye R is available
for their use. Since progress in terms of development is generally led by feedback, there is also clearly an advantage of using the forum to collect that too.
I am in the process of creating a new repository for the files
(mainly in anticipation of the debian-based version being released too);
I'll announce that more formally once I have completing setting it up.
Of course, I'm happy for the files to be mirrored on puppy-specific sites as well.
In the meantime I am sure you have noticed that version 1.0.0 final is now ready and available for download at Caneri's site.
New releases are likely to come more slowly from now on, however,
though I shall endeavour to update the package on a regular basis and certainly in sync with new releases of some of the underlying applications, such as espeak and speech-dispatcher.

Posted: Tue 25 Mar 2008, 22:45 Post subject:
Environment simplified access to the Internet for the blindSubject description: (GPL) created by Erwin Bliesenick for use on Ubuntu

I'm continuing my struggles trying to produce a version of fokSyf that will run on Ubuntu alongside Orca.
It is a big struggle for me,
because until recently I have not actively used either Debian or Ubuntu,
so I even had trouble compiling the latest edbrowse on it like alone packaging the whole of fokSyf!
In the meantime, for those who speak french,
I've been informed of another system for blind users, by Erwin Bliesenick, which runs on Ubuntu.
Perhaps someone could adapt it to english?

mcewanw mentioned Erwin previously.
Erwin produces the french translation of Karl Dahlke's edbrowse usersguide.
He is also producing a beginners usersguide which covers edbrowse and computing in general.
Again, that is in french, and he is looking for help in translating it.
Perhaps someone reading this can assist?

I'm sure Erwin won't mind me quoting this extract from the email he sent me:

Erwin wrote:

I have developed a "complete system" for blind users: a speech synthetizer, originally written in Python, and rewritten in C++, and a few "utilities" (a program (written in C) for learning the keyboard (each key is pronounced), and "a file reader" for the main file formats (word, open office, rtf, pdf) called by Edbrowse functions. And, of course, an utility for tuning the tts engine. All packed in a "menu" writen in bash. All is now on my site (www.bliesenick.net : in French ! sorry)
I will buy a computer in the next days for my blind friends and I will certainly install puppy linux on it. I am, after years with Debian, under Unbuntu (I'm fully sighted). For the moment, I've not tried puppy.

As for my own struggles with Ubuntu...
I've been trying out Orca. It is very good in many ways. Fine for the not too severely visually impaired I'd say, but I'm not so sure it is of much use for a totally blind person.
It is also a huge system. Foksyf with Puppy Linux, on the other hand, can be carried around on a usb stick, and doesn't rely on any GUI at all. Puppy is much easier and user-friendlier, it seems to me, than Ubuntu. Ubuntu is great, but complexity comes at a cost. However, the great thing about a speech reader system that runs on Ubuntu is that Ubuntu is a very widely used system generally.

An incredibly slimmed down Ubuntu (more so than Xubuntu) would be fantastic, but for now, Puppy seems to me to be the best small yet really quite complete Linux out there. Puppy is just so very adaptable and expandable. For the home user it is near to perfect in that sense.

Well, I was close to giving up on producing a Ubuntu version of fokSyf. However, I have suddenly made progress. Nothing yet available for publication there, but I do have it running on my Ubuntu system now, though it is only partially functional as yet, and there are many changes to make and fix up.
It is working with yasr, without needing to load up Orca at all, so I am confident that I can now produce a version for a slimmed down Ubuntu too, such as Xubuntu and also Edubuntu.
I will also produce a foksy menu which doesn't call up yasr, so that it can be used alongside Orca (which doesn't use yasr) as an alternative. That should work too.

Following the instructions in the foksyinstallREADME.txt carefully. For full functionality, the Ubuntu version requires the apt-get additional download of some of the underlying applications. The Puppy Linux versions all comes in a single dotpet as usual.Last edited by wiak on Sun 30 Mar 2008, 21:35; edited 1 time in total

I've been away and very busy (still am) for a while, but thought I'd check in and mention that I've quickly tried installing foksyfeyer on Puppy 4.00 ((dingo). Apart from krecspk the voice recording program provided in foksyfeyer, the rest pretty much works, apart from a minor glitch (which doesn't prevent its otherwise correct functioning). I'll fix krecspk and the minor glitch sometime in the coming weeks, once my moving house is sorted out. Here are the brief notes I wrote concerning my recent foksy test in Dingo:

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